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NYC Neighborhoods by the Numbers: FY16 Trends Report

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

New York City's 73 business improvement districts (or, "BIDs") are the largest such network in the country. For more than 30 years, BIDs have been valuable and proven partners in ongoing initiatives of neighborhood revitalization and economic development across the five boroughs, making NYC neighborhoods cleaner, safer, and more vibrant. Serving as a critical liaison between City government and neighborhood stakeholders, BIDs also provide services to supplement the services already provided by the City, such as sanitation and public safety. The Department of Small Business Services ("SBS") oversees and supports the NYC BIDs, offering training and tools; administering grant programs to strengthen commercial districts; and working with community partners to identify commercial district needs and plan targeted solutions.

Fulton Area Business Alliance ("FAB") is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization representing over 400 small business and property owners, mostly along Fulton Street and Lafayette Avenue in Clinton Hill and Fort Greene. We work in partnership with stakeholders to enhance the street; to attract, support and retain local businesses; and to bring a wealth of resources that benefit the entire community.

In fiscal year 2016, nearly 40% of FAB's allocated budget was spent on Sanitation Programs, which include sidewalk sweeping, trash bagging, gum scraping and graffiti removal. This amount was far and beyond the collective BIDs' average spend of 28.5%. Overall, our FAB sanitation crewworked over9,100 hours on the streets and in public plazas in the district, collected 60,000 trash bags, and removed 720 incidents of graffiti.

Another area of focus for FAB is Marketing. BID Marketing Programs promote the district and its businesses, drawing foot traffic to the area. BIDs often produce shopping guides, install holiday lighting, host street fairs, live music and dance performances, community movie nights and cultural festivals. FAB held 33 events during the fiscal year (overall BID average was 17), and Marketing accounted for 36% of the allocated budget.

There are many more interesting statistics in this annual trends report, published by SBS. You can read more here.

TREND TIDBITS(from the FY16 NYC BID Trends Report)

In NYC, the collective BIDs employed 737 sanitation workers, who logged 1.4 million hours as they collected 3.9 million trash bags and removed 85,190 instances of graffiti, stickers and posters.

There were 60 BIDs with holiday lighting programs, covering over 3,100 block faces.

Not every BID has extensive public space (FAB is lucky to have a few!), but of those which do have Streetscape Programs, 3,228 planters were maintained, 15,551 street furniture elements were installed, and over 200 public art installations were sponsored throughout NYC last year.